The Watcher is one of Slay The Spire's most complex classes, utilizing an expansive deck of cards to balance its three powerful stances. Differing dramatically from the other classes, the Watcher demands a thorough understanding of Wrath and Calm to be used effectively.
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The Watcher works very well for patient players who like to deal quick bursts of damage before returning to a more defensive position. However, novices and masters alike should consider using the strongest cards the Watcher offers to get the most out of this play style, bolstering their deck with powerful abilities like Scry and Retain.
10 Windmill Strike
Windmill Strike is a strong win condition in Slay The Spire. It costs two energy to play and does relatively low damage, but its true power is tied to its Retain effect: at the end of each turn, it stays in your hand, and its damage increases, which means that in just a few turns it can deal upwards of 30 damage to take down stronger enemies.
This card works excellently in decks with plenty of blocks. Once Windmill Strike is drawn, you must survive enough rounds to build up damage before entering Wrath to kill weaker enemies in one hit. Windmill Strike also keeps its increased damage throughout combat, allowing you to deal that massive damage again in just a few turns. Combine this card with the Bottled Flame relic to ensure you always draw it on the first turn.
9 Talk To The Hand
A powerful card that allows the Watcher to play offensively while still keeping up defenses, this card works excellently in Wrath decks, where both damage and block are necessary to stay alive. In addition, multi-hit attacks like Tantrum and Ragnarok also trigger it multiple times, making it a great fit in Wrath decks.
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This card is best against elites, bosses, and other enemies with a lot of health since its effect remains for the entirety of combat (or until it is removed). This allows players to build up block while dealing damage constantly. This card is also an excellent choice for Bottled Flame, allowing it to activate at the start of every combat for the most uptime.
8 Foresight
Scrying is a powerful effect that lets players look at the top cards of the deck and move unnecessary ones to the bottom, ensuring only the best cards are drawn. Foresight grants scry 3 (4 upgraded) at the start of each turn, which makes your draw potential exceptionally consistent, especially for smaller decks.
Because Foresight also activates very frequently, this also works well with cards like Nirvana and Weave that grant special effects upon scrying (gaining block and returning a free attack to your hand, respectively). Because Foresight allows players to draw only the most necessary cards, it is almost a necessity for Alpha decks to get the Omega effect online.
7 Omniscience
A costly card, Omniscience is simultaneously very difficult to play and game-endingly strong. It allows the player to select any card in their draw pile and play it twice. This can be extremely powerful with the right card choices.
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Worship, which gives 5 Mantra, allows the Watcher to enter the powerful Divinity stance immediately. Ragnarok, which deals tremendous damage, deals twice that damage for free. Finally, having another Omniscience to play with this card can double that card's effects, allowing you to cast two more cards twice each for massive returns. This card is very expensive, even after being upgraded, so having an energy relic is very useful for running it.
6 Establishment
Establishment reduces the cost of your cards whenever they retain. Since so many of the Watcher's strongest cards have retain and are very expensive, Establishment can pay for itself after very few turns in decks built around those cards.
Establishment is already strong on its own, but upgrading it gives it Innate. This allows you to play it at the start of every combat, ensuring it takes effect for the vast majority of turns you will take in one run. In addition, this card synergizes excellently with Battle Hymn, which generates a Smite card every turn, quickly creating a vast array of free and powerful attacks. Adding Master Reality or Molten Egg to a deck with Establishment and Battle Hymn upgrades every Smite upon being created for even more damage.
5 Ragnarok
Ragnarok is a decisive win condition that needs to be built around expertly. Since it costs a hefty 3 energy, players need to go into a Ragnarok deck with the understanding that they might not get to use it until much later in the run, when they have energy relics and enough low-cost cards to keep them alive while Ragnarok tears through their enemies.
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Ragnarok's power comes from its multi-hit functionality: each hit is increased by your Strength stacks, so building up even a few points of Strength can almost double its damage output. However, its biggest weakness is its random targeting, which might target the wrong opponent in multi-enemy fights. Combine Ragnarok with cards like Wreath of Flame and Trip for blistering amounts of damage, and with Talk to the Hand for several instances of block proc.
4 Tantrum
Tantrum is a low-cost Wrath-activation card that also deals solid multi-hit damage. On top of that, it returns to the draw pile instead of going to the discard, meaning it can come back much more quickly than other cards.
Not only is Tantrum a straight upgrade to Crescendo, the Wrath card the Watcher starts with, but it is also arguably the strongest Wrath card the Watcher can get. It deals the same or more damage for less energy than Eruption, has a more desirable effect than Indignation, and can be played with much more consistency than Crescendo, despite Crescendo's ability to retain. This card, combined with Inner Peace and Rushdown, can create an infinite loop by stance switching from Calm to Wrath. Violet Lotus boosts this infinite but is by no means necessary.
3 Spirit Shield
Spirit Shield is quite expensive but provides a large amount of block. Granting 3 block (4 upgraded) for every card in hand, Spirit Shield works particularly well in retain decks and decks with high draw power, both of which are likely to have a high number of cards in hand at any given time.
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Stance dancer decks also love to have a Spirit Shield or two, since they often pack several Flurry of Blows cards for free damage upon changing stances. This means a single stance change can provide several more cards to create block with Spirit Shield and then lay down more damage. Using the Runic Pyramid relic to prevent your hand from being discarded at the end of your turn allows you to ensure a full hand for maximum block every turn.
2 Lesson Learned
Lesson Learned deals decent damage, particularly when upgraded, and it has a Fatal effect: whenever it kills a non-minion enemy, it upgrades a random card. If this card is found early in a run, or as a starting bonus, it can remove the need for smithing, making the Fusion Hammer relic much more appealing.
This card is made better with more hallway fights, so decks built around it need some measure of protection. A prime card for that purpose is Swivel, which gives 8 block and makes the next Attack played cost 0 energy. When played with Lesson Learned, this is the equivalent of 8 block, which works excellently for fights against multiple enemies. It can be challenging to line up, but using the Pen Nib relic can double Lesson Learned's damage, increasing its frequency of Fatal activations.
1 Blasphemy
Blasphemy is easily the strongest card in the Watcher's arsenal, and maybe one of the strongest cards in the game. It instantly puts you into Divinity regardless of Mantra, which triples your damage for the turn. This has the potential to end combats.
Blasphemy has one serious drawback that newcomers should beware: you die at the start of your next turn. It does this by applying a buff, Blasphemer, which things like Artifact or Orange Pellets cannot remove. However, Blasphemer can be worked around: it doesn't kill you; it deals massive damage (10,001, to be precise). As such, Intangible, Buffer, Lizard Tail, and Fairy Bottle can prevent death, allowing you to ignore Blasphemer and reap Blasphemy's massive benefits. Enter Calm before activating Blasphemy for a massive boost of 5 energy, and use Scrawl to draw as many cards as possible for divine amounts of damage.
Slay the Spire is available on Android, iOS, Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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